First round (23 Nov - 29 Nov):In this round you can suggest nominees for each category. All suggestions will make it to round 2.

Second round (30 Nov - 6 Dec):Vote for the suggested nominees from round 1 so that the top 5 nominees in each category (or top 3 when there aren't a lot of choices) make it to the last stage.

Third round (7 Dec - 14 Dec):Vote for the winners in each category out of the top nominees from round 2.

The winners will be announced on Friday 14 December 20:00hrs GMT by our special guest star, The Keyboard Oracle. The winner of the *Ping* Award will be announced by our guest star The Demongolator.

Voters in the final round can win various prizes provided by our sponsors. The winners will be selected randomly from the voters in the third round, and will also be announced on 14 December. To vote, you need a minimum of 10 posts on deskthority. See the voter prize announcements which will be posted shortly for the latest details.

When a category winner is a deskthority member, he or she will get a special Deskthority Award Clack Factory Wingnut trophkey! We commissioned the most famous of keycap artists clickclack to design and produce these trophy keycaps for the Awards. Category winners in this edition and future editions will be the only people ever getting one of these keycaps.

I'll post the sponsor prize topics over the weekend, but spoiler here:

Spoiler:

The Keyboard Company: A Filco Majestouch Italian Red keyboard with Cherry MX Red switches in either de/uk/se/fi layout, or a us layout tenkeyless or fullsize black Filco Majestouch with Cherry MX Red switches.

WASD Keyboards: A full custom keyboard.

Signature Plastics: Three prizes for three different winners: 1. A PBT sublimated glow in the dark keycap set and an ABS 2-shot molded glow in the dark set. 2. An 87 key 2-shot black set with white text and an 87 key 2-shot white set with black text. 3. A medium sized 'grab/crap' bag of keycaps

QWERkeys: A bunch of deskthority and trololo keycaps for a bunch of different winners.

After complaints last year about the location of the live results ceremony, which was in Casino Zodiak in Astana, Kazakhstan, we have listened to your concerns and moved the live event this year to the Samye Monastery, Shannan Prefecture, Tibet, where the Keyboard Oracle is awaiting as your humble host among a growing and ecstatic crowd.